The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for accessing pharmacy information and ordering prescriptions via a network connection, and more particularly to access via a network, such as the Internet, to personal pharmacy information and personal prescription ordering.
In the area of Internet commerce, the use of websites to relay product information and also allow customers to order goods or services via the internet is well-known. Within this arena the dispensing of pharmaceutical information and the filling of medical prescriptions is known. Typically such websites are proprietary and allow customers of a particular pharmacy to order prescriptions from that particular pharmacy or pharmacy company. Since many of these companies consist of a chain of member stores, the use of internet for dispensing drug information and for ordering prescriptions becomes more desirable.
Prior art on-line pharmacies include linking a number of users accessing the internet to a network server owned by the pharmacy in order to view pharmaceutical information and order prescriptions to be delivered either via mail or to be picked up at a particular store location of the pharmacy company by the user. Past attempts, however, have consisted of an internet server for communicating with the pharmacy customers via the internet and accepting prescription orders. These orders are then, in turn, faxed or e-mailed to the particular pharmacy store, for example, where a pharmacist or technician then verifies the prescription and fills the prescription order. Such attempts, however, have limitations in that the server connected to the internet is not interfaced with a company data base of customers prescription and health histories, thus creating more manual steps to be undertaken such as e-mailing or faxing prescriptions and access by the pharmacist or technician to another repository of health and prescription records for the particular user.
There is therefore a need for an apparatus and method of on-line pharmacies that integrates customer health and prescription records with a network server that is effecting communication with users via the internet. Additionally, the prior art systems also make access of health and prescription records kept by the pharmacy company difficult to access by the end users since no integration exists between the internet network server and the information repositories kept by the particular pharmacy company. Hence, there is a need for a method and apparatus that affords more ease of access to prescription and health history records kept by the particular pharmacy company.